attorneys fees

[gigis 0]

Much of my disgust doesnt come from the length of immigration process as it does attorneys' ability to take advantage of people in this sitution.

When my hubby who is from the carribean first come to the US, and started this process with his first wife, he paid an attorney about $3500. At that point, he was filing under a us citizen daughter. The paper work was insufficent, the petition denied and hubby was not informed of his right to appeal. Years later, hubby and I met and married, and started this process again. This time another attorney told us we had to start where the first case left off. This was of no use because the of time to appeal had been gone and so of course our paperwork was denied and deportment activity proceeded. We had paid this attorney over $10,000 for this "masterpiece". After finding about the VJ network, I recognize we didnt need an attorney at all, and much of the paperwork is simple and could be done ourselves. We now have a interview pending on an AOS application. My question is: is there any way to recover what we have lost in attorney's fees?

Has anyone else been so duped?

Edited December 7, 2011 by gigis

[Sugarz.K.R 9]

I considered it and when i started to ready the USICS site i thought "peice of cake."

Once you can read write, speack english and use the internet you can do it.

I think you need a lawyer when u have a complicated case or think you'd be denied for a particular reason.

I know some one who paid there lawyer 3000 to file a I-130 CR1 visa. Im filing the same and so far only paid $41O n expect to pay $800 more for aos, iv, medical. I guess you are paying for peace of mind.

[J and S 38]

Much of my disgust doesnt come from the length of immigration process as it does attorneys' ability to take advantage of people in this sitution.

When my hubby who is from the carribean first come to the US, and started this process with his first wife, he paid an attorney about $3500. At that point, he was filing under a us citizen daughter. The paper work was insufficent, the petition denied and hubby was not informed of his right to appeal. Years later, hubby and I met and married, and started this process again. This time another attorney told us we had to start where the first case left off. This was of no use because the of time to appeal had been gone and so of course our paperwork was denied and deportment activity proceeded. We had paid this attorney over $10,000 for this "masterpiece". After finding about the VJ network, I recognize we didnt need an attorney at all, and much of the paperwork is simple and could be done ourselves. We now have a interview pending on an AOS application. My question is: is there any way to recover what we have lost in attorney's fees?

Has anyone else been so duped?

Sounds unfortunate that you went through all of that and paid the extra fees. But now as a member on this forum, you'll get a lot of free help.

Unfortunately, it is very unlikely that you will be able to recover any of the fees you already paid to the lawyer (the 10K). It's not impossible, I'd imagine. But there's a lot more in play, and you'd first have to look for any loopholes in the contract you would have signed with your lawyer. It would also depend on the State, as I'm sure each state has a different way of handling recovery fees from lawyers.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

No.

Even a stupid attorney, more so a crook, will have covered his butt by not promising anything he can't deliver. What you can do is hire another attorney, give him $10,000 to sue the old attorney and be out $20,000 when all is said and done.

Putting sugar in the gas tank of his BMW . . . that's all you can do. But even that I would not recommend.